Match Discussion: Round 18 vs Eels @ McDonald Jones Stadium

[Swarzey]

He doesn't transform us at all - we just scraped by against Parramatta, and most of our team played pretty shit. He's just that good that his own individual contributions are enough to drag our pus-leaking carcus over the finish line. Barely.

You honestly can't tell me he doesn't transform us when our attack looked significantly better, looked increasingly more likely to score, got repeat sets, tremendous field position with kicks? We got momentum back in the game and guess who led us around? Pearce. Couldn't see Cogger doing that or even Ponga doing that. When Norman scored, how often have we put our heads down and allowed teams to roll over us? How many times has that happened without Pearce?

Lets actually not bury ourselves in the sand here because it doesn't fit our narrative and admit that Hayne actually looked good, that Parramatta have had some tremendous games recently and shown they can at times put it together. They however - like us - cost themselves opportunity after opportunity. This is a team that on paper should be in the top 4 and should have been there all season.

Jesus Christ, call someone if you're going to neck yourself ffs.

 

[Spot On]

Pearce dominant - SKD, Levi and Sione also very good. Everyone else average to poor.

I thought Guerra was bloody enormous.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

I actually thought we lifted our intensity quite a bit in the second half. We kept Parra down near their try line for much of the half. We conceded a try against the run of play really. A few errors towards the end caused us some nervous moments but we held on desperately in the end.

Pearce was good on return, as was Big Dan. Levi was excellent tonight, he was our best I thought, kept splitting the markers and making massive metres up the middle. Honestly after the stuff that was said during the week I’m stoked for Levi that he managed to walk the walk and play a blinder.

To be honest I can see a lot of similarities between Levi and Damien Cook, small and sharp little hooker with plenty of speed around the ruck. The big difference is that Cook plays behind a way better forward pack and gets better opportunities to run.

 

[Haffa]

Hopefully thats the last we see of Meaney. He could turn out ok but made some poor plays tonight.

 

[Spot On]

I actually thought we lifted our intensity quite a bit in the second half. We kept Parra down near their try line for much of the half. We conceded a try against the run of play really. A few errors towards the end caused us some nervous moments but we held on desperately in the end.

Pearce was good on return, as was Big Dan. Levi was excellent tonight, he was our best I thought, kept splitting the markers and making massive metres up the middle. Honestly after the stuff that was said during the week I’m stoked for Levi that he managed to walk the walk and play a blinder.

To be honest I can see a lot of similarities between Levi and Damien Cook, small and sharp little hooker with plenty of speed around the ruck. The big difference is that Cook plays behind a way better forward pack and gets better opportunities to run.

Would be nice to have someone trailing him to give him a passing option. How many times did he pinch 10 m and have to take the tackle?

 

[Dave_]

A question I'd like to ask is, would you prefer Griffin the way he's been playing this year or Levi the way he played tonight?

I personally was very frustrated with Griffin. His slow service was more detrimental to the flow of the team than most people thought. Levi with a good pack could cut teams up.

With Levi back in form and Ponga back, we actually have a good spine that can tear sides apart. We desperately need to fix that disgraceful pack.

 

[Pedge1971]

Hard to see who else we would beat playing like that.

Ourselves. We tried bloody hard tonight and almost did. Ah well, always next week derp...

 

[Apey]

I think Griffin is too slow but currently more reliable than Levi over 80 minutes.

 

[Loose Cannon]

I actually thought we lifted our intensity quite a bit in the second half. We kept Parra down near their try line for much of the half. We conceded a try against the run of play really. A few errors towards the end caused us some nervous moments but we held on desperately in the end.

Pearce was good on return, as was Big Dan. Levi was excellent tonight, he was our best I thought, kept splitting the markers and making massive metres up the middle. Honestly after the stuff that was said during the week I’m stoked for Levi that he managed to walk the walk and play a blinder.

To be honest I can see a lot of similarities between Levi and Damien Cook, small and sharp little hooker with plenty of speed around the ruck. The big difference is that Cook plays behind a way better forward pack and gets better opportunities to run.

Jeez.
Re: Levi/Cook comparison. Was thinking the same for months.
Sad i didnt post before. Said it multilple times to my drinking buddies. All credit for the observation i defer to you. Guy will be special behind a solid pack.

 

[Burwood]

With a half decent pack who are capable of tackling, Griffin becomes less important.

 

[Pedge1971]

A question I'd like to ask is, would you prefer Griffin the way he's been playing this year or Levi the way he played tonight?

I personally was very frustrated with Griffin. His slow service was more detrimental to the flow of the team than most people thought. Levi with a good pack could cut teams up.

With Levi back in form and Ponga back, we actually have a good spine that can tear sides apart. We desperately need to fix that disgraceful pack.

With our fwd pack the way it is Griffin is crucial. Give us a pack of beasts owning the middle, Levi any day of the week. That simple. Still have agriffin in the squad though as Danny struggles to run 80.

 

[Dave_]

The only thing we need more than more signings is an injury free season. This year wouldn't look near as bad without the injuries.

Doesn't matter who you have on the books if they're all on the sidelines. We are surely due 10 straight injury free years.

 

[Pedge1971]

The only thing we need more than more signings is an injury free season. This year wouldn't look near as bad without the injuries.

Doesn't matter who you have on the books if they're all on the sidelines. We are surely due 10 straight injury free years.

Everyone gets injuries. Just not 3 of our best with 8+ weeks injuries every year please....

 

[perverse]

You honestly can't tell me he doesn't transform us when our attack looked significantly better, looked increasingly more likely to score, got repeat sets, tremendous field position with kicks? We got momentum back in the game and guess who led us around? Pearce. Couldn't see Cogger doing that or even Ponga doing that. When Norman scored, how often have we put our heads down and allowed teams to roll over us? How many times has that happened without Pearce?

Lets actually not bury ourselves in the sand here because it doesn't fit our narrative and admit that Hayne actually looked good, that Parramatta have had some tremendous games recently and shown they can at times put it together. They however - like us - cost themselves opportunity after opportunity. This is a team that on paper should be in the top 4 and should have been there all season.

Jesus Christ, call someone if you're going to neck yourself ffs.

I called it as I saw it, and I saw a lot of average performances carried by a very good halfback and some key helpers in the team. It was enough to get a narrow win over the wooden spooners. If that qualifies as a transformation for you then I guess you have lower expectations of the players than I do? Our left side defence was often diabolical, our go forward up the middle struggled, and we had a hard time in the ruck for large portions of the game. This is the same story as every other week.

Hayne was allowed to look good, and I don't know what relevance the pre-season expectations of Parramatta have when we're 18 rounds into the season. We have plenty of evidence of their form and how "good" they are as a team. How many teams in the comp do you think we or Parra beat with our respective performances tonight?

Are we better with Pearce? Of course. He brings fantastic qualities to the team. Has anything much changed around him? In my opinion, not particularly. And why would it in the course of a fortnight? When you're carrying a plod brigade in the middle, you are going to be a limited football team.

 

[Yosh]

Levi and Cook are similar but I would say Cook is still a whole level above Levi. Cook's speed out of the ruck is amazing. He also directs the attack better from what I've seen. Levi looked very good last night but I hope that's the minimum standard he plays at from now on. Not a one off big game.

 

[Dave_]

Isn't it amazing that Pearce has been so maligned over his career (by me admittedly). There aren't many better halfbacks around... he's tough and a strong defender, great support player and kicking game, knows how to control a game and inspire teammates, good passing game, good speed...everything really. He just couldn't bring any of that to the Origin arena. A strong case can be made that he's had shit packs to work with for NSW but he's never played behind a pack worse than he is now and never will but does well. I think the greatness of Billy Slater was a huge reason Pearce struggled so much in Origin. All I remember is every kick going directly to Billy on the full...but who doesn't do that with Billy?

He did have a lot of other deficiencies at Origin level too. Hard to believe when you watch him play club footy. Great player

 

[Spot On]

I called it as I saw it, and I saw a lot of average performances carried by a very good halfback and some key helpers in the team. It was enough to get a narrow win over the wooden spooners. If that qualifies as a transformation for you then I guess you have lower expectations of the players than I do? Our left side defence was often diabolical, our go forward up the middle struggled, and we had a hard time in the ruck for large portions of the game. This is the same story as every other week.

Hayne was allowed to look good, and I don't know what relevance the pre-season expectations of Parramatta have when we're 18 rounds into the season. We have plenty of evidence of their form and how "good" they are as a team. How many teams in the comp do you think we or Parra beat with our respective performances tonight?

Are we better with Pearce? Of course. He brings fantastic qualities to the team. Has anything much changed around him? In my opinion, not particularly. And why would it in the course of a fortnight? When you're carrying a plod brigade in the middle, you are going to be a limited football team.

I pretty much agree with this re Pearce. We all know what he brings and of course it is a different stratosphere of play compared to Cogger...... and so it should be.

For mine, Pearce's greatest attribute is his competitiveness - he is always in the game and for us that is priceless. His long kicking game is very good and his defence for a half is outstanding. I take that every day of the week in this side.

Weak points, and this is not a knock on him, he's of pretty average ball playing ability and has a poor short kicking game. He's not a creative half that can bamboozle defences. He needs structure in attack or we don't score many points from him imo. However, it is up to the coach to help provide players that compliment him and his skill set. In Ponga we have an outstanding ball playing talent with vision in attack and in Watson we are hoping a decent running 5/8 who hopefully will develop good attack using his developing skill set. I'm still concerned we lack a top notch short kicking game and am hoping Levi can provide that close to the line to help out a bit.

But for us is the same old story, not enough quality around the spine, a gaping hole in our pack and little depth. It's great we have Ramien and Lee coming, possibly Moga to return but we must get another 3 middles ASAP and if Guerra remains on an edge we need Fitzy to kick on with his attack as I don't see much in our backrowers re attack compared to the good sides going forward. Ponga can't be our only point of attack.

 

[alexwilliams_66692007]

With Fitzy back next week:
8. Ese'ese
9. Levi
10. Saifiti
11. Fitzgibbon
12. Barnett
13. Guerra

Piss King off.

 

[mozza91]

Jesus reading through this thread was a misery. We weren’t that flash but we were definitely the better side.

We’re still missing 5 or 6 regulars and managed to hold on to a narrow lead. We’d of lost that game for sure last year and the year before.

I thought our forwards actually aimed up for once. Saifiti was excellent for someone who hasn’t played in a couple of months. Ese was good bar a few brain farts. Guerra was very good, Barny strong and bar that pathetic defensive effort on Vave at the start King had his best game of the year. Levi fed off this and picked his opportunities perfectly.

We were pretty good for the last 70 minutes and showed a fair bit of improvement.

I’m looking forward to the last 7 games. Seeing what the Ponga, Watson, Pearce and Levi combination can provide will be bloody fun to watch. Hopefully off the back of an improved pack with Fitzy and Jacob back shortly. Decent times ahead I think.

 

[Old dog]

Agree with Mozza, but in fairness reading through the comments made during game tends to be more critical as made in the excitement or disappointment at the time. I awarded my points for the match to 6 players and left Guerra out who I thought was good, Meaney had a good game for debutant with at least one good bust. SKD did lots of work without getting a point from me, the others Barnett, King, Sio played ok with Denniss not so. Bench was confusing with less use than usual I thought, our biggest, Lillyman seemed to get little time and having Ross sitting for 70 minutes put more pressure on the rest, imagine how much better it would have been with a strong forward playing for 30-40 minutes.